The Condition for the Possibility of Reviving Iranian Civilization in the view of Dr. Mahmoud Afshar Yazdi

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Imam Khomeini International University

2 Professor of History in faculty of Humanities in Imam Khomeini International University

3 Associate Professor in Imam Khomeini International University

Abstract

The years between the First World War until the change of the monarchy in 1925 is one of the most important periods in the contemporary history of Iran. Successive political, economic, social, cultural, and military crises were the most important distinguishing features of this period from the past history. In every way the country was in danger, governments were falling one after another, the economy has been bankrupted, and the great powers had taken control of important parts of the country. During this period, some intellectuals thought what should be done to preserve Iran and revive its civilized heritage? Some thinkers promoted nationalist ideologies, many others promoted Archaism, others believed of reliance on Russia and Britain, and others saw the solution by emphasizing the historical and civilizational components of Iran; all of them suggested a way to save the country. One of these people was Dr. Mahmoud Afshar. So, the main question of this research is what was Afshar's solution to revive the Iranian civilization? This article discusses Afshar's views based on descriptive-analytical according to the Morgenthau's theory on power, and shows that Afshar offered a more reasonable solution based on the historical foundations and social realities of the country. The results of the research show that Dr. Mahmoud Afshardid not ignore the historical facts of the country for establishing the Iranian Civilization. He considered of Iranian civilization, but he defined this according to religious components of the country, not based on teachings had nothing to do with Iranian history.

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